The proliferation of knowledge facilities aiming to satisfy the computational wants of AI could possibly be unhealthy information for the US energy grid, in accordance with a brand new report in Bloomberg.
Utilizing the 1 million residential sensors tracked by Whisker Labs, together with market intelligence information from DC Byte, Bloomberg discovered that greater than half of the households exhibiting the worst energy distortions reside inside 20 miles of serious information heart exercise.
In different phrases, there seems to be a hyperlink between information heart proximity and “unhealthy harmonics” — a time period for the less-than-ideal movement {of electrical} energy into properties.
Bloomberg says this “distorted” energy may finally destroy plugged-in home equipment, enhance vulnerability to electrical fires, and even result in brownouts and blackouts. And AI information facilities could possibly be much more problematic due to their risky power necessities.
“No grid is designed to have the ability to deal with that sort of load fluctuation not just for one information heart however for a number of information facilities on the identical time,” stated Bloom Power’s chief industrial officer Aman Joshi.
A spokesperson for Chicago’s Commonwealth Edison informed Bloomberg the utility “strongly questions the accuracy and underlying assumptions of Whisker Lab’s claims.”